Director: In the end, children should be focus

Keeping children safe involves more than the obvious. In the state of Texas, all adults are legally mandated to report suspected child abuse to Child Protective Services or local authorities. Some red flags could be muted instances that need to be relayed just the same.(Photo: Torin Halsey/Times Record News)Buy Photo

"I hope it's an opportunity for everybody in the communities we serve ... to really understand what that mandatory reporting means."

Roberts said every adult in the state of Texas who reasonably suspects a child is being neglected or abused, whether physically or sexually, is required by law to report the information to the proper authorities.

If you see or suspect any of these types of things are happening to a child, call the Texas Abuse Hotline at 800-252-5400 if the situation is urgent and needs to be investigated within 24 hours.

If it is an emergency or life-threatening situation that must be dealt with immediately, call 911 before calling the hotline.

For situations that don't need to be investigated right away, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has provided a secure website (www.texasabusehotline.org) to report suspicions of abuse, neglect and exploitation of children, adults with disabilities or people 65 years of age or older.

While Roberts said she hopes Child Protective Services would be notified shortly after the allegations are disclosed to any adult, professionals legally must make the report within 48 hours.

The law defines a professional reporter as "anyone who is licensed or certified by the state or works for an agency or facility licensed or certified by the state and has contact with children as a result of their normal duties."

They also may not delegate their responsibility to anyone else or rely on another person to make the report of suspected abuse.

"Ideally, we want it as soon as possible," Roberts said. "We know that if something has happened to a child, the sooner that we know about it – the sooner that law enforcement, CPS or other authorities know about it – the sooner we'll be able to help the child and have a better chance of making a difference for them."

Roberts urged the public to always err on the side of safety and let authorities know if they see anything that feels out of character or a child comes to them with a disclosure.

"We don't want you to try to guess," she said. "Let the professionals investigate and do what they need to do. If you have reasonable suspicion of abuse, make the report and err on the side of safety."

For children possibly being abused, they could have a sudden change in sleeping patterns, behavior or ways they play with other children or with toys.

They could be withdrawn from things that normally interested them, or act out unusual scenarios while playing with their dolls.

"You just want to take note of those differences in behavior," Roberts said. "It may not be that anything is happening, but we want you to err on the side of safety."

While their language and what they call certain body parts may be different, the child might approach an adult he or she trusts to talk about things that have happened to them.

Roberts said she always asks people to teach their young ones the correct terms for body parts and that there are places on their body that are not okay for other people to look at or touch.

"Children, at certain ages, should not have knowledge of sexual behaviors beyond a certain point," she said. "We want you to talk to them about places on their body that are not okay to look at or touch, but they should not know or have knowledge of certain sexual acts."

Roberts said some may discover these things through means other than abuse though also.

"It could be that they saw something on a TV that they shouldn't have seen if adults were watching something," Roberts said. "...It could be they walked in on someone that was having sex or doing something.

"There could be reasonable explanations as to why they would have that information, but, again, we want to err on the side of safety and make sure that there's not something that has happened to them."

Rather than trying to justify away the oddities they've noticed, people should allow the experts and trained professionals to make those judgment calls, Roberts said.

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Keeping children safe involves more than the obvious. In the state of Texas, all adults are legally mandated to report suspected child abuse to Child Protective Services or local authorities. Some red flags could be muted instances that need to be relayed just the same.(Photo: Torin Halsey/Times Record News)

CPS and its investigators may be seen in a negative light by some, but Roberts said they aren't trying to tear families apart or rip children from their homes.

"Everybody that works these cases wants, at the end of the day – our hope and prayer is that nothing has happened to a child," she said. "Our hope and prayer is that we can keep families together and safe – that parents and caregivers are being protective and taking care of children."

There are times that reports are filed based on reasonable suspicions, potential victims are forensically interviewed at Patsy's House and they discover no abuse.

"That's happy dance all around here," Roberts said. "That's the best case scenario. A report was made because someone was concerned. We bring a child in after a request was made to bring them in. We do the interview, talk with them and nothing is there."

The interview is designed to be as safe and kid-friendly as possible so the child can have a voice to tell if anything has happened to them. They are asked questions in a non-leading way to determine the child's own account.

Roberts said they want the child to be given a chance to come forward and potentially be saved from years of further abuse.

"We hope nothing has happened, but what is something has happened? ... It's a hard thing sometimes," she said. "People worry about making a call and nothing has happened. ... I think there is some stress and concern about that. CPS is there to make sure the child is being protected and taken care of."

Roberts wishes she could wake up and learn that no more children were being abused and each of them was being nourished and nurtured.

"That's what we want at the end of the day," Roberts said. "I'd love nothing more than to be out of a job tomorrow. But, unfortunately we know that's probably not going to happen."

Until such a day comes, the staff at Patsy's House always encourages the children they speak to out in the community to "tell, tell, tell," especially to an adult they feel safe talking to about potential allegations.

"We talked so much in the past about stranger danger, but what we know is that 90 to 95 percent of the time that the person abusing the child – whether it's sexual abuse or whatever it is – that it's someone they know, love and trust. They are using that to be able to hurt the child," Roberts said.

In those cases where it is a relative or close family friend who is the abuser, it can often take a teacher, counselor, nurse or doctor to come forward and report what they see as suspicious.

"We know that our educators are on the front lines," Roberts said. "They are our heroes on the front lines doing this day in and day out. For a lot of the cases we are investigating, the report comes from an educator."

Roberts said people often want to remain oblivious and believe others in the community, or people they trust and love, aren't capable of harming or neglecting the most vulnerable in society.

"Whether it's a child in denial or a parent in denial or a caregiver, nobody wants to believe that could happen to their child or in their neighborhood or in their town, for that matter," she said. "But, err on the side of safety."

Despite current headlines in which two Wichita Falls ISD principals are accused of failing to report suspected child sexual abuse, Roberts said she and her staff continue to have confidence in the local educators.

"We do believe in our teachers and they are doing great things. Everybody makes mistakes and things happen," she said. "If we can use this to continue to bring awareness to the communities we serve and keep the children at the forefront and do what's best for them, then everybody wins."